In 1919 Mr. Edward M. Fay bought the Knickerbocker Theatre and gave it his name. He was also associated with a group of theatres he owned in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was born. One of them, Fays Theatre, also bore his name and was a famous vaudeville house in that city. He had also managed the National Theatre in Rochester and acquired the McKinley Square Theater in Manhattan. This information comes from a biographical entry for Fay in the volume Rhode Island – Three Centuries of Democracy.